Generic drugmaker Actavis also posted results early on Thursday, with a 59 percent net revenue increase to $2.78 billion and an earnings per share loss of 86 cents. Earlier this week it announced it was buying rival Forest Laboratories for around $25 billion.

Other companies worth watching on Thursday include Facebook, after its giant $16 billion acquisition of mobile messaging firm WhatsApp. The purchase is Facebook's largest yet, dwarfing the $1 billion it paid for Instagram.